


Frame

by orphan_account



Category: Yume Nikki | Dream Diary
Genre: Character Study and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:08:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22106824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Madotsuki follows a frog down the dark path of enlightenment.
Kudos: 10





	Frame

It stares at her from behind the cracked open doorframe. She couldn't be sure if the frog was inviting her outside or if she unknowingly had invited the frog inside. The membrane lining the frog's right eye folds over as if winking and then the frog turns around and hops back into the forest.

Madotsuki, at a loss for what to do next, does what she always does when in doubt; she simply moves forward. Peddling her bike, she follows the frog and is met with an unnatural silence upon exiting. Where there should be the cawing of birds and a hum of insects, there is instead only the squeaking of tires rolling over wet grass. Whether or not it has rained recently, there was no way of knowing - but that's how everything is. 'Knowing' and 'guessing' might as well be interchangeable. The blackness enveloping the earth melts with the sky and if there are clouds to be found, Madotsuki cannot find them. The dewdrops coating the viridian expanse may have been there as long as the foliage itself had, inseparable through means of time or understanding - that is to say that Madotsuki would not be here for long and could not rightfully say if this place existed before she acknowledged it nor did she know if it would (or could) continue existing after she inevitably would forget about it.

It didn't matter one way or the other. She was apathetic towards the world and in turn the world was apathetic towards her. They didn't interact much with one another outside of shared contact with Madotsuki's bike; the dream and the dreamer were strangers with little to discuss and she keeps her mouth shut, just as she does in real life.

Ghosts haunt the forest but not anymore so than people haunt cities. She drives past and through them and the ghosts follow her, demanding that she stop and apologize for being, well, for being herself. She ignores them, apathy not unlike a pair of expensive headphones. All she can muster to give them is a bored glance before resuming her chasing of the frog. 

The frog doesn't seem to notice the ghosts much either but one can't fault wild animals for being themselves. Their souls are barred from culture and civility and would be regardless if they'd been born as beast or man. For whatever reason, the frog seems interested in Madotsuki though and maybe she should be worried but can't find it within herself to think too critically on it. The frog provided her with something to do other than stare at her bedroom walls as she had every night for the better part of a year and that was the full extent of their friendship. Nothing more, nothing less, and in this truth they bonded more than Madotsuki ever had with a human.

When she finally catches up to the frog, she gets off her bike, kneels down, and picks it up. Her eyes are closed but the way her and the frog's faces are tilted suggests they are looking deep within one another. What they see is a secret; the frog promises it will never reveal Madotsuki's true nature and in turn, she swears the same to the frog.

But the frog was a liar.

It was okay though.

The girl didn't mind.

She'd suspected as much from the beginning.

The frog gives a little ribbit that cuts through the forest like an ax. Madotsuki nods, be it in agreement or disagreement, and suddenly pops the frog into her mouth, swallowing it whole and without struggle. Her head then begins to warp and pucker grotesquely as if stricken with plague. Her pale face turns green and warts emerge along her cheeks as her nose and ears sink into her mucus coated flesh. So it was that in being betrayed she herself became honest. With this new visage of horror, her appearance perfectly reflects how she imagines her parents and classmates must see her and she felt all the better for growing into their expectations: behold, a monster inside and out.

 _How quaint_ , she smiles softly, making like the ugly little insignificant frog that the world always knew her to be and hops back onto her bike, disappearing into the void of societal irrelevancy.


End file.
